Huddersfield Town ratings as Matos and Spencer catch eye in loss to Man City

The Terriers put in a committed effort but were inevitably soundly overcome by the reigning treble winners and world title holders

Lee Nicholls - 6

Had little more than long shots to deal with for much of the first half, with the hosts unstoppably scoring their only two real clear-cut chances of the first period. Powerless on the goals and made a good stop to deny Sergio Gomez a well-struck effort.

Brodie Spencer - 7

Straight into the starting line-up after being recalled from his loan at Motherwell. Impressively mature performance from the teenager after being given the job of looking after £100m Jack Grealish. Won his aerial battles well and used his physicality and reading of the game to good effect on the floor, too. Couldn’t really have done much more.

Tom Lees - 6

Stayed alert throughout and dealt as well as he reasonably could with City’s cycling between number 9 and number 10.

Michal Helik - 6

Acted as the final barricade in front of Nicholls goal, trying to block and clear anything that came his way.

Rarmani Edmonds-Green - 6

Shifted into the back line after Yuta Nakayama was called away for international duty. Caught out by a fabulous ball over the top and an equally impressive bit of control by Matheus Nunes as he teed up City’s third goal. Had bright moments in the mix too.

Ben Jackson - 6

Returned from illness to play at left-back. A little rushed with the ball at times when he maybe could have done more to help the side stay in possession, but we suspect that’s far easier to say from the stands than it feels on the pitch on an occasion like this. Need to keep in mind he’s played little football over the past six weeks.

Ben Wiles - 6

Had to put in a hell of a shift to help Spencer cover the Town right flank while also coming forward to help Thomas in the press at times. Moved into central midfield after the hour.

Jack Rudoni - 6

Often the man Town looked to as their first pass out of the defence to try and get on the counter-attack, but often in vain. Like all his teammates, put in a huge effort to try and limit the world champions as much as possible.

Alex Matos - 7

Made his debut for the club after arriving on loan from Chelsea in the week. An early yellow card for a too-robust challenge that forced Manuel Akanji off injured slightly limited Matos’ ability to commit to challenges, but he positioned himself smartly to compensate and looked like being a good outlet to drive the ball forward at speed. Put himself about in all the ways you want to see — looks a really promising acquisition.

Josh Koroma - 6

Expended a lot of energy chasing the City wide players around and inevitably lost his thread now and then. Not the game for him to try and gain some attacking sharpness, but tried to find through balls wherever he could, to some success.

Sorba Thomas - 6

Started in a somewhat unfamiliar lone striker role in Darren Moore’s 5-4-1. Several times caught offside trying to capitalise on Town’s rare opportunities to cause City problems. Ceaseless in his attempts to deprive City’s defenders of time on the ball or to carry out the somewhat thankless job of leading the Town line. Clearly frustrated by his inability to beat Stefan Ortega to claw a goal back for Town on the hour, after which he moved out to the wing in a substitution that was already in the works.

Substitutes

Bojan Radulovic (for Matos 61) - Took over from Thomas up front to make his debut for the club after signing on Friday. Carved out a good shooting chance that Ortega did well to save. 6

Brahima Diarra (for Koroma 81) - Saw out the game on the right wing. n/a

Tom Iorpenda (for Wiles 88) - Made his senior debut from the bench after being praised by Darren Moore in Friday’s press conference. n/a

Subs not used: Giosue Bellagambi, Loick Ayina, Tom Edwards, Josh Austerfield, Michael Stone, Kyle Hudlin.

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